SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 | 9A
Woodford art to be on display at Oregon Pacific Bank for November
Florence Regional Arts Alliance
(FRAA) has announced that member
artist Jan Woodford will have her work
on display at Oregon Pacific Bank during
the month of November.
“My family left Oregon when I was 5,
but I always dreamed of returning to my
home state,” said Woodford. “After get-
ting a degree in Fine Art from California
State University at Northridge, I took
additional classes at the California Art
Institute, and several other colleges and
private workshops. In 1998 my husband
and I moved to Florence”
Woodford coordinates a portrait paint-
ing group called Figure 8, but landscapes
of the Oregon coast are still her favorite
subjects. She paints in both oils and pas-
CHANGE
from page 1A
The reason is simple:
Science and what we un-
derstand about it is always
evolving and changing,
creating the possibility of
misinterpretation — which
seems to be the main thrust
behind the current debate
over climate change.
Not to say there isn’t com-
mon ground. There is no
argument on some things,
tels.
Woodford serves on the Library Art
Committee and, on Thursday mornings,
she paints with other artists at Old Town
Coffee. Her paintings are on display at
Old Town Coffee and Gallery, FRAA
and at various galleries along the Oregon
Coast.
The community is invited to view
more of her artwork at www.florence art-
ists.com/janwoodford.html or at Oregon
Pacific Bank this November.
Florence artist and FRAA member
Jan Woodford works with both oils
and pastels.
such as understanding that
the planet’s resources are in
many instances’ finite and
that the processes we use to
extract and consume them
are often destructive, caus-
ing interruption of other
natural cycles.
It is indeed the age of the
Anthropocene, the Age of
Human control of the bio-
sphere.
Humans now have the
ability and the necessary
In 2019 we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary
of our business in Florence. It is time to express the
appreciation and gratitude we feel, and have always felt, for
the friendship, trust and loyalty of those who live in this
community. It is your confi dence in us and your continued
patronage that has made these 80 years such a pleasurable
experience. Th ank you.
Johnston Motor Company
Since 1939
2150 Hwy. 101 • Florence
(541) 997-3475 • 1-800-348-3475
COURTESY PHOTO
tools to alter, modify or de-
stroy every habitat on Earth.
This can occur through in-
tent, neglect, misjudgment
or inaction. We can redirect
rivers to provide water to
populations or ease navi-
gational routes to increase
trade, such as with the cre-
ation of the Panama Canal.
But do we understanding
the long-term impacts of
humanity’s power to im-
pose its will on the planet?
And do we understand
the Earth’s ability to im-
pose its own will humanity
through its changing cli-
mate?
The food we depend on
to survive is planted, grown
and harvested based on
predictable and consistent
cycles of sun and rain.
Without this certainty,
many segments of the food
chain would be damaged,
possibly beyond repair.
Locally, there are some
individuals who have cho-
sen a path forward that
is more inclusive when it
comes to what can be done
and are working to address
the issues that divide us.
Rev. Karin Baisinger
leads the Florence Meth-
odist Church and her sense
of what needs to be done
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is based on looking ahead
rather than arguing about
the past.
“After attending the Par-
liament of the World’s Re-
ligions in Toronto in No-
vember and hearing the
call to non-violent action
at a global gathering rep-
resenting 83 countries and
210 spiritual paths and reli-
gions, I began reading more
intensively about climate
change,” Baisinger said. “I
did some deep soul-search-
ing about what is most im-
portant and how best to live
this precious life I have been
gifted with.”
Baisinger and her hus-
band were in the process of
selling their home in Eugene
and moving to the Olympic
Peninsula when she said
she began to feel more and
more strongly about a call
to work with a community
of faith, a United Methodist
church, during a time she
sees as critical for the plan-
et, her children and grand-
children.
“We should be focused
on what is best for the con-
tinued survival of all life on
Earth, not just humanity,”
she said. “There seems to be
a sense that concern for the
environment somehow di-
minishes humanity’s rights
in the equation.”
Baisinger believes the
climate discussion is also
about social justice. As a
member of her church’s Sa-
cred Earth Initiative Team,
she looks at the overall im-
pact of pollution and oth-
er issues where individual
behaviors can be altered to
reduce the negative results
of our action.
One Sacred Earth Initia-
tive team member is Vicki
Philben, M.D., a retired
surgeon.
“She and her husband,
Scott, are essentially ‘climate
refugees’ in my view,” said
Baisinger, who explained
that the two became part of
the congregation last year,
just ahead of the devastat-
ing fires in Redding, Calif.
“We see the climate
change emergency as a mor-
al issue, one involving social
justice,” said Dr. Philben.
“The people who produce
the most pollution are not
the ones who are the most
affected. Climate change
will negatively impact ev-
eryone, but the people most
impacted will be children,
the elderly, people living in
poverty and, of course, fu-
ture generations.”
Philben said the poor
produce only a tiny amount
of pollution, “Yet, it is they
who mostly bear the brunt
of the negative effects of
climate change. This is not
fair. Again, this is a matter
of social justice.”
On a local level, this
means using the tools in
our conservation and resto-
ration toolbox properly and
effectively, said Baisinger.
It also requires erring on
the side of caution and not
recklessness, primarily as
we have to think of future
generations and the need to
leave them a planet that can
provide the essentials of life.
There are some simple
steps that each of us can
take that may make a differ-
ence moving forward.
According to the Cen-
ter for Clean Air Policy
recycling, composting and
waste-to-energy programs
can help on a small scale
and, when combined with
the work of others, makes a
big difference. Recycling re-
duces the amount of waste
that goes into landfills and
the need to process new
materials from the environ-
ment.
In addition, composting
reduces gases from organic
waste and creates a viable
alternative to adding man-
made fertilizers.
Waste-to-energy
pro-
grams divert materials from
landfills and create new rev-
enue streams.
All of these actions can
decrease the impact each of
us has on the environment.
Regardless of which side
of the climate debate you
stand on — man-made or
natural cycle of the plan-
et, crisis or not — the one
thing both sides agree on is
that the climate is changing
and that humans play a role.
“Only a fool would claim
the plastic island in the Pa-
cific, the dead zone around
Pripyat in Ukraine or the
colorful rivers of China’s
inland happened by them-
selves,” said Florence resi-
dent Matt Danielsson. “But
modern doomsayers argue
for a return to almost bor-
derline medieval living,
while I believe technology
and innovation is the way
forward if for no other rea-
son than that it’d prevent
mass starvation.”
While Danielsson agrees
that society has reached
a point where yesterday’s
solutions to energy and in-
dustrial needs have become
today’s problem, he believes
it’s the same drive for in-
novation that created those
solutions that will positively
impact the future.
“What will come next? I
don’t know. But we literal-
ly have armies of scientists
working on it and a free
market that will pounce on
the next game-changing
technology,” said Daniels-
son. “It won’t come out of
the goodness of their hearts
but because they want to
make an obscene profit.”
What Danielsson says he
does know is that the planet
now hosts 7.7 billion hu-
mans. “If we try to yank oil
out of the equation prema-
turely, as some extremists
advocate, we are guarantee-
ing ecological collapse and
mass starvation.
“So, let technology and
innovation solve this prob-
lem; treading backwards
w h i l e s e l f - f l a g ge l at i n g
doesn’t strike me as a win-
ning concept.”
In the meantime, increas-
ing numbers of large-scale
conflagrations, burning
hundreds of thousands of
acres of land, forest and
fields, are again striking
places like California.
Additionally, fires rage
over hundreds of thousands
of acres daily in the Amazon
and across large swaths of
Southern Asia and Africa. A
glance at the website Global
Watch Forest Fire shows the
number, location and sever-
ity of fires currently burn-
ing — and that number is
often in the thousands.
Massive often unchecked
wildfires destroy millions
of trees and less notice-
able biomass like bushes
and grasses, which serve as
homes and food for an array
of wildlife, birds and insects.
Most of these creatures will
perish do to smoke inhala-
tion before they are burned
to death.
The smoke and particu-
late matter from these fires
rise into the atmosphere,
blocking the sun and mi-
grating to other loca-tions,
often hundreds of miles
from the original fire. This
makes breathing difficult
and causes the death of
many smaller creatures that
cannot leave the fire loca-
tion.
All of these scenarios, and
their long-term impacts,
need to be better under-
stood to ensure that the ac-
tions we take to address our
changing climate — wheth-
er through new technology,
reducing our carbon foot-
print or a combination of
the two — help mitigate the
problem instead of adding
to it.
Ultimately, the fact that
there are divergent and
passionate opinions sur-
rounding the climate dis-
cussion means the sub-ject
has risen to the level where
a global conversation about
it — something which rare-
ly took place just a few de-
cades ago — will continue.